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30 Mar 2009 : Column 883W—continued
AWE Aldermaston
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South of 18 December 2008, Official Report, column 964W, on AWE Aldermaston, if he will place in the Library a copy of any Preliminary Safety Report prepared by the Directorate of Major Projects when it has been completed at AWE Aldermaston for the proposed Enriched Uranium Facility and Hydrodynamics Facility at AWE Aldermaston which has been provided to the Health and Safety Executive. [265156]
Mr. Quentin Davies: Neither of these documents currently exist. They will be assessed for placement in the Library of the House if and when they are produced.
Cluster Munitions
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he plans to take to implement the UK's obligations under the terms of the Oslo convention on cluster munitions. [267193]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Ministry of Defence immediately withdrew service cluster munitions prohibited by the convention from operational service following the adoption of the text of the convention on cluster munitions on 30 May 2008 and before its signature on 3 December 2008. Further, the MOD has already started a destruction programme that aims to destroy these munitions ahead of the deadline set out in the convention of eight years after its entry into force.
Defence: Equipment
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 16 March 2009, Official Report, column 831W, on Iraq: peacekeeping operations, what mechanism is used to assess a proposal to gift equipment. [266393]
Mr. Hutton: Surplus assets are considered for sale before being considered for gifting. Any proposals for the gifting of equipment in Iraq are scrutinized by the Ministry of Defence's Operational Planning Group (Redistribution). This group was established in October 2008 to address the drawdown of UK forces in Iraq. Gifting of items with a value of less that £250k can be authorised by the Ministry of Defence; any items with a value greater than £250,000 can only be authorised by HM Treasury and Parliament.
Departmental Data Protection
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to Article 1.16 of the Final Report on Data Handling Procedures in Government of June 2008, whether any personal data from his Department were illegally traded in 2008. [267233]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: We are not aware of any incidents of this type.
Departmental Domestic Visits
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions he has visited each region of England in an official capacity in the last 15 months. [266942]
Mr. Hutton: Since I assumed the role of Secretary of State for Defence on 4 October 2008 and up to 24 March 2009,1 have made the following official visits to the English regions, as defined by the Government offices for the English regions:
| English region | Number of official visits |
There are inevitably a number of occasions where judgment has been applied as to whether the activity qualifies as a visit or official engagement, particularly in London.
Departmental Empty Property
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the change in the annual cost to his Department of maintaining the empty public buildings owned by his Department as a result of the April 2008 changes to empty property rate relief. [267135]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Due to the specialist nature of the majority of the defence estate, its lack of any commercial value in rating terms and the recognition that any vacant estate is normally to be disposed of, the incremental cost of change to empty property rate relief is minimal.
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much (a) electricity, (b) gas and (c) other fuel was used by (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies in each of the last 10 years. [267337]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Ministry of Defence's annual consumption data for electricity, gas and other fuel for the period 1999-2000 to 2007-08 are provided in the following table:
| MWh (weather corrected) | |||
| Electricity | Gas | Other fuel( 1) | |
| (1) Includes heating oil, LPG, coal. | |||
The 2008-09 consumption figures for electricity, gas and other fuels are not yet available but will be reported later in the year in the Sustainable Operations on Government Estate return.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the (a) production and printing and (b) other costs to his Department of producing its most recent (i) departmental annual report and (ii) autumn performance report. [266697]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Production and printing costs of the Ministry of Defence annual report and accounts 2007-08 was £35,824. The autumn performance report was produced in-house under a corporate reproduction contract at no additional cost. Other costs associated with the production of these reports are not centrally held and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Training
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has provided voice coaching to any of its employees in the last 12 months. [260640]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many training courses were taken by (a) civil servants and (b) Ministers in his Department in each of the last three years; and what the total cost of training was in each year. [265301]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Erasmus: EU Defence Policy
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will assess the potential merits of pluriannual funding for a Military Erasmus programme from the European Security and Defence Policy budget. [266898]
Mr. Hutton: There are no plans for pluriannual funding for the European Initiative on the exchange of young officers inspired by Erasmus, nor is there a separate European Security and Defence Policy budget for such initiatives. The scheme, sometimes described as military Erasmus, is a voluntary arrangement in which member states can choose to participate at their own cost. The UK is not participating in this scheme.
EU Defence Policy
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what reports he received from the Inter-Parliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly in 2008; and which of those he has responded to. [267359]
Mr. Hutton: The Department had regular contact with the European Security and Defence Assembly throughout 2008 but we did not receive any reports from the Assembly.
Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average number of UK (a) service personnel and (b) civilian staff stationed in Iraq was in each financial year from 2002-03 to 2007-08. [258868]
Mr. Hutton: Information on the average number of service and Ministry of Defence civilian personnel stationed in Iraq in each financial year from 2002-03 to 2007-08 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The number of personnel in theatre at any one time fluctuates significantly on a daily basis for a variety of reasons, including mid-tour rest and recuperation, temporary absence for training, evacuation for medical reasons, the roulement of forces and visits.
Information on the number of military personnel deployed in Iraq at the end of May in each of the last six years has, however, been made available on the Department’s website, and can be found at:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Templates/Factsheet .aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7bF0 BBlDFlA9C74E1796E7B3301B06E45F%7d&NRORIGIN ALURL=%2fDefenceInternet%2fFactSheets%2fOperations Factsheets%2fDperationsInIraqFactsandFigures%2ehtm&NRC ACHEHINT =Guest#mc2
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British troops have served in Iraq since 2003. [259493]
Mr. Hutton: Due to ongoing validation of data from Legacy Service Personnel Administrative systems and the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) “Move and Track” system, data on the total number of deployed personnel to Iraq since 2003 are not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
As at 1 February 2009 there were 91,300 serving members of the UK armed forces who have been deployed to Iraq and the Gulf region since 2003. This figure does not include personnel who have served in Iraq and the Gulf region but who had left the armed forces by 31 January 2009.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many seaborne attacks by armed gangs (a) in the Persian Gulf, (b) in the vicinity of Umm Qasr and (c) near the Basra oil terminal have been recorded by his Department in each year since 2007. [266941]
Mr. Hutton: No reports of serious incidents involving attacks by non-state forces operating from the sea against coalition naval assets in these geographical areas have been recorded since 2007.
Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 9 March 2009, Official Report, column 176W, on Iraq: peacekeeping operations, for what reasons he does not publish information on individuals captured outside multi-national Division South-East. [265409]
Mr. Hutton: Given the sensitive nature of these operations it is not the practice of the Department to comment upon them.
Military Aircraft: Helicopters
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Lynx helicopters in each service were fitted with voice box recorders in each year since 2003. [266937]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The following tables provide the number of Royal Navy and Army Lynx helicopters that were fitted with Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVRs) during each year since 2003.
| Royal Navy | ||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Total fitted | |
| Army | ||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Total fitted | |
| (1) 24 Lynx Mk9 helicopters entered service in 1991/92 with CVRs already fitted at initial build | ||||||||
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